Orson Scott Card - Maps in a mirror: the short fiction of Orson Scott Card

From book flaps:

MAPS IN A MIRROR
THE SHORT FICTION OF ORSON
SCOTT CARD

THE SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD brings together nearly all of Card's stories, from his first publications in 1977 to work as recent as last year. For those readers who have followed this remarkable talent since the beginning, here are all those amazing stories gathered together in one place, with some extra surprises as well. For the hundreds of thousands who are newly come to Card, here is a chance to experience the wonder of a writer so talented, so versatile that he can handle everything from traditional narrative poetry to modern experimental fiction with equal ease and grace. The brilliant story-telling of the Alvin Maker books is no accident; the breathless excitement evoked by ENDER'S GAME is riot a once-in-a-lifetime experience.

In this enormous volume are 46 stories, broken into five books: Ten fables and fantasies, fairy tales that sometimes tell us truths about ourselves; eleven tales of dreadand commentary that explains why dread is a much scarier emotion than horror; seven tales of human futures science fiction from a master of extrapolation and character; six tales of death, hope, and holiness, where Card explores the spiritual side of human nature; and twelve lost songs.

The Lost Songs are a special treat for readers of this hardcover volume, for here are gathered tales which will not see print again. Here are Card's stories written for Mormon children, a pair that were published in small literary magazines, a thoughtful essay on the writing of fiction, and three major works which have, since their original publication, been superseded by novel-, or more than novel-length works. First, there is the original novella-length version of Card's Hugo and Nebula Award-winning novel, ENDER'S GAME. Then there is "Mikal's Songbird", which was the seed of the novel SONGMASTER; "Mikal's Songbird" will never be published again. And finally, the narrative poem "Prentice Alvin and the No-Good Plow"here is the original inspiration for the Alvin Maker series, an idea so powerful that it could not be contained in a single story, or a hundred lines of verse, but is growing to become the most original American fantasy ever written.

MAPS IN A MIRROR is not just a collection of stories, however complete. This comprehensive collection also contains nearly a whole book's worth of original material. Each section begins and ends with long, intensely personal introductions and afterwords; here the author reveals some of his reasons and motivations for writing what he writesand a good deal of autobiography into the bargain.

ORSON SCOTT CARD grew up in Utah and attended Brigham Young University, where he studied drama. Card's early writing career was devoted to plays; he had his own theater company, which was successful for a number of years. Card spent his missionary years in Brazil, learning to speak fluent Portuguese. He now lives in Greensboro, North Carolina, with his wife and three children.

TOR BOOKS BY ORSON SCOTT CARD

Ender's Game The Folk of the Fringe

Saints Maps in a Mirror: The Short Fiction of Orson Scott Card

Songmaster

Speaker for the Dead

Wyrms

THE TALES OF ALVIN MAKER

Seventh Son

Red Prophet

Prentice Alvin

MAPS IN A
MIRROR

THE SHORT FICTION OF
ORSON SCOTT CARD

A TOM DOHERTY ASSOCIATES BOOK NEW YORK

This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious, and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental.

MAPS IN A MIRROR: THE SHORT FICTION OF ORSON SCOTT CARD

Copyright 1990 by Orson Scott Card

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book, or portions thereof, in any form.

A version of the afterword to Book 5: Lost Songs originally appeared as Mountains out of Molehills in Foundation: The Review of Science Fiction #45, Spring 1989.

A Tor Book
Published by Tom Doherty Associates, Inc.
49 West 24th Street
New York, N.Y. 10010

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Card, Orson Scott.
Maps in a mirror : the short fiction of Orson Scott Card / Orson Scott Card.
p. cm.
ISBN 0-312-85047-6
1. Fantastic fiction, American. 2. Science fiction, American.
I. Title.
PS3553.A655M37 1990
813'. 54dc20

90-38896

CIP

Printed in the United States of America

098765432

Ebook History:
1.0 - 12/4/2003 - Kelzan

To Charlie Ben,
who can fly

THE HANGED MAN
Tales of Dread

Chrysalis 4, ed. Roy Torgeson (Zebra, 1979)

Omni, August 1979

Omni, July 1979

Omni, January 1980

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, December 1979

Gallery, November 1979 (published title: Hard Driver)

Omni, June 1981 (published title: A Sepulcher of Songs)

Aboriginal SF, September 1986

Omni, December 1981

(first publication)

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1989

FLUX
Tales of Human Futures

Omni, December 1978

Best of Omni #3, ed. Ben Bova and Don Myrus (1982)

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, November 1989

Destinies, August 1979

Analog, August 1978

Analog, December 1978

Foundations Friends, ed. Martin Harry Greenberg (Tor, 1989)

MAPS IN A MIRROR
Fables and Fantasies

Omni, March 1979

Chrysalis 7, ed. Roy Torgeson (Zebra, 1979)

Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories, Dial Press 1981

Dragons of Darkness, ed. Orson Scott Card (Ace, 1981; as Byron Walley)

Other Worlds 1, ed. Roy Torgeson (Zebra Books, 1979)

Berkley Showcase 1, ed. Victoria Schochet (Berkley, 1980)

Swords Against Darkness 4, ed. Andrew J. Offutt (Zebra, 1979)

Woman of Destiny, ed. Roy Torgeson (Berkley, 1984; as Dinah Kirkham)

Amazing, November 1981

Analog, May 1979

CRUEL MIRACLES
Tales of Death, Hope, and Holiness

The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, January 1979

Night Cry 2:5, 1987

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, March 1987

Omni, December 1980

Analog Yearbook, ed. Ben Bova (Baronet, 1978)

New Dimensions 10, ed. Robert Silverberg (Harper & Row, 1980)

LOST SONGS
The Hidden Stories

Analog, August 1977

Analog, May 1978

Sunstone, August, 1989

Analog, November 1977

Analog, February 1978

Mountainwest, 1978

The Green Pages, October 1989 (as Noam D. Pellume)

The Friend, February 1978 (as Byron Walley)

The Friend, January 1978 (as Byron Walley)

The Friend, October 1977 (as Bryon Walley)

The New Era, May 1979 (as Byron Walley)

The Ensign, July 1977 (as Byron Walley)

I can't watch horror or suspense movies in the theatre. I've triedbut the tension becomes too much for me. The screen is too large, the figures are too real. I always end up having to get up, walk out, go home. It's more than I can bear.

You know where I end up watching those movies? At home. On cable TV. That little screen is so much safer. The familiar scenes of my home surround it. And when it gets too tense, I can flip away, watch reruns of Dick Van Dyke or